


The Five Royal Siblings

by pineapple_utopia



Category: Fortuna (Webcomic), Original Work
Genre: Adopted Children, Alien Character(s), Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Gen, Murder, No Dialogue, POV Third Person, Royalty, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25884409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pineapple_utopia/pseuds/pineapple_utopia
Summary: The history behind the queen of Chyta is full of tragedy. Only her aging parents remain of her family. Few like to think about what happened, and far fewer know about the truth.---I'm not entirely sure if it could count as general audiences but I'm using teen and up just to be safe.
Kudos: 3





	The Five Royal Siblings

**Author's Note:**

> In this context "soulmate" is  
> 1\. A cultural thing  
> 2\. Familial and platonic ONLY
> 
> Emoza are a carnivorous bird-like species that "promote" a specific emotion and can live around 200 years, Chyta being the planet they live on
> 
> And yes, if you manage to find the emoza entry on the cosmosdex, I am the author (listed as Qweerplx) and this history is canon to the species

The royal family of the emoza once held seven members in its wings. The king and queen, and their five children.

  
The two parents held cluelessness and curiosity. 

The king was often careless in his actions and decisions and found the important responsibilities for a noble to uphold were too much for him. He held little power and the kingdom loved him the way one does an endearingly stupid puppy. The kingdom instead ruled under curiosity, the queen, who led with good reason and attentiveness. She instated a group of people, regularly chosen through democracy by the people, that would be sure to question her decisions and see to it that she did not lose sight of what was best for her planet and its inhabitants. Through this and other decisions, she created an age of peace and happiness on Chyta. As the years went on, five children soon appeared in the decks of royalty, present to continue the age of monarchy.

**  
** **Disgust, superiority, inspiration, cheerfulness, and playfulness.**

As of typical royal culture, one was to inherit the throne. However, curiosity found it upon herself to create periods of ‘trial rule’ that her own children and other candidates in the future would have to complete. This trial would occur on the child’s 50th hatchday, when considered fully adult. A trial would last a month, and if it was found they could not do their job properly, then the next would be given their trial run when their hatchday hence came.

There are many stories of people not being satisfied with the inherited setup of royalty, and while no system is perfect, never had in Chyta’s history had it gone so badly as it did then. 

**One of the five was jealous.**

The youngest of the five knew that she would stand no chance to the throne. It was most likely their older sibling, inspiration, would take up the position as ruler. The group her mother had organized would be sure to keep him focused despite his scattered nature, and if not him, then it would be cheerfulness. 

She knew if she did not do something, then there would be no way for her to reach what she believed to be rightly hers. Not unless her siblings were unable to fill the position, of course. Knowing this, she planned a way to win at the long game. While already a naturally cheery child, she made sure to put on an extra layer of innocence and goodwill that few would care to look past. Who would suspect a mere child of what she planned to do?

Playfulness carefully took notes of her family’s behavior and interactions with each other. Soon enough, only playfulness would be eligible for the throne. It was only a matter of waiting.

She grew as close as possible to cheerfulness. They did everything together. Eating, playing, sleeping, never would you ever see them apart. It’s a mystery how playfulness managed to pull everything off without cheerfulness catching on. They grew so close one could remark they were attached to the hip and wing, and others would say how lucky it was for someone to find their soulmate in a sibling. Cheerfulness thought similar and was never happier than they were at playfulness’ side, content to live in the shadows of their older siblings and live care-free with their sister. 

Meanwhile, in the light of cheerfulness’ oblivion, playfulness made disgust and superiority grow ever more negative with each other. A careful word here, a small word there, the occasional rumor or fake message. It escalated to the degree where they would jump at the other’s throat for laying a napkin down incorrectly. Inspiration was left to wallow alone in their studies, pressed by playfulness to keep to his studies and remain neck-deep in his writing or solving. He oftentimes forgot to take care of himself, he was so distracted with what he could learn.

When it came to the time of disgust’s trial, inspiration died unexpectedly. It was a known fact he was allergic to most spices, and so such things were kept away from his food. Yet, perhaps because of some clumsy kitchen hand, it was true that inspiration was dead. The trial was withheld in order to mourn over the lost sibling. It was found none of the kitchen, or anyone in the castle, could be found responsible.

**The remaining four vowed to find whoever had done such a deed.**

Disgust swore up and down at the loss of his brother, turning to blame superiority for his passing. She was nothing short of incredulous and blamed him in turn, making the two dive into an unreasonable anger with each other. Cheerfulness grew afraid and nervous, clinging closer to playfulness even more than before. Playfulness smiled under her own tears, knowing who was at fault. She knew to plan her next lines carefully and start planting the evidence around cheerfulness, ready to reveal when the time was right. In the end, no one could find the person responsible for inspiration's demise. Why would the youngest and most naive child of the five royal siblings ever do such a thing as murder her own brother?

The trial went on as planned, and disgust was crowned. He seemed to be doing well at first, but was quickly found to be incompetent, too overcome with a dislike for beings he perceived to be lower than he was and unable to accept the fact that he could be wrong about anything. His trial ended as quickly as it began and the queen set to fixing the mistakes he had made and preparing for when superiority would have her try. It would not be for a few years, but with the relatively long lifespans her species had, it would not seem a lengthy time to wait.

When it came, at first superiority seemed to be able to move past her own bias enough to create a reasonable rule. As a week has passed under her rule, so had disgust. He was found dead in his bedding. An obvious scuffle had been made around the room. Superiority was one of the first suspects, being physically close to disgust and having the clearance and ability to take him down, as well as reasonable motive. Everyone knew of the rivalry the two shared. There seemed to be no physical evidence against her, but the facts aligned well enough to convince most. 

A legal trial passed in order to try and earn a confession from her or find the real culprit, but in the end she was removed from her position and put under a careful watch. The renewed tragedy of losing inspiration came along with the demise of disgust. The planet again mourned a death. 

**Now there were three siblings.**

With the death of disgust and inspiration and superiority out of the picture, the next in line would be cheerfulness. They did not wish for the throne in the slightest. Instead, they preferred sitting in the background, enjoying the company of their family and the various employees of the castle. Now that two members of their family were gone and another apparently responsible for one, cheerfulness was much more uneasy and found it difficult to keep on a smile without harshly ignoring everything that had happened. A sense of paranoia they had not known before began sinking in it's teeth. Their trial would not happen for a few decades, but it was something they would have to face eventually. Playfulness did not intend to wait that long.

Superiority was found dead in her room. No one could say who had done it or why, but no one could deny the blood on her body.

**Then, only two siblings remained.**

A string of death had befallen the royal family, and only the inseparable cheerfulness and playfulness were left of the children. It’s royalty treated like celebrities, much of society held its breath and hoped they would remain standing unlike the three others before them. Alas, it was not to be.

Only a week after superiority’s passing, playfulness stepped forward in a shroud of tears, pulling out a wrenching sob story. She claimed she had been forced to see all of cheerfulness’ true colors. The death of her siblings was orchestrated all by cheerfulness. They had put a dreadful poison disguised by spice into inspiration’s food, and had hired someone to take care of both disgust and superiority when the chance came. Cheerfulness had urged her to keep quiet or else she would follow. Now, with three of her siblings gone and cheerfulness next in line, she felt pressed to tell the truth, no matter what may happen to her next. Hardly anyone could believe the news. Cheerfulness? The small, oblivious child who would cry the moment they were separated from their sister? The reason for any of those violent acts they could not fathom. Seeing their hesitance, playfulness readily explained, saying that she had seen cheerfulness put on such an act to make people believe them innocent. That it was all for the throne, and that they feared they would not be able to take it for their own. They had driven the three now dead siblings into their sad fates and removed any evidence pointing towards themselves. Their mask of cheerfulness was simply a ruse to cover their malicious intent. The only reason playfulness could say this now was because cheerfulness had not truly worried about playfulness inheriting the throne as the youngest sibling of all. But she could no longer live with this dangerous secret and had to tell everyone, or else she would never rest again. When silence had fallen, there was not a single person who did not believe playfulness’ lies. Why would she lie? It was what made the most sense, and someone so close to the events that had transpired was willingly giving a theory that tied things together. Besides, she was but a child. Even if cheerfulness had lied, why would she? Not a single person doubted her save cheerfulness themselves.

**All of the emoza turned on cheerfulness.**

There was a legal trial, but with playfulness as the main witness, there was hardly anything left to prove. It aligned with all the events that happened. Not one possible thing explained nor justified the murder of their own family for something so trivial. To murder your own family in cold blood simply for a standing of power was unthinkable in a society so built on emotion and love of your close ones. 

Cheerfulness could do nothing as this horror of a reality crashed down upon them. They had realized playfulness was the true culprit far too late, and were unable to stop the crowd’s raving and screaming for justice. Indeed, what could they have done if they knew earlier? Playfulness would have only rid of them sooner. The crowds thrummed, and they got the justice they wanted, or so they believed. Torn from cheerfulness’ back, what made every emoza what they were was removed.

They destroyed the emotion they could promote, ripped from them their wings, taking away the freedom, pride, and identity that emoza carry on their backs. The crowd believed that such a vile being was undeserving of belonging to any species, undeserving of kindness or compassion, that it was good that now they would be unable to feel the very thing they were born for. Cheerfulness no longer existed in society, and they did not deserve to feel cheerful.

  
**And then there was one.**

The royal family of the emoza once held six members in its wings. The king and queen, and their four children.

There were only ever four royal siblings, and the youngest took the throne after a series of terrible tragedies. The fond memories of cheerfulness and playfulness conjoined together by hip and wings were forgotten with fever. All evidence of them together was wiped clean.

Cheerfulness was banished from their home planet, forced to flee in a ship heading spaceward. They could no longer feel cheerful, not with what they had been forced through. Not even a single smile could be mustered to their face. Not after this. Them alone knew playfulness was the one to have caused them all this pain and grief, their once best and most trusted friend.

Scared of the chance any other would repeat their history, cheerfulness drew into themselves and shrunk away from any person. With such an ugly thing bearing upon their past, it is no wonder that they eventually succumbed into a terrible state, scared of the monster that everyone told them they were.

  
  



End file.
